GOP Sen. Kennedy: ‘Facebook Is No Longer a Company, It’s a Country’

4 Feb 2019

Monday on Fox News Channel’s “The Story,” Sens. John Kennedy (R-LA) and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) discussed their efforts to regulate Facebook and other social media platforms, which are now playing a larger role in Americans’ every day lives.

Kennedy argued the Facebook terms and conditions weren’t consent given they are so difficult to comprehend for most people.

“I didn’t want to have to be here, Martha,” Kennedy said. “I didn’t want to have to regulate Facebook. But here’s what we find: Facebook is no longer a company. It’s a country. Two billion users, $40 billion in cash flow. They influence what we think, how we vote, what we buy, even how we feel. Now Facebook says, ‘Yeah, but you give your consent.’ No, you don’t. Their terms and conditions – you could hide a dead body in there and you’d never find it.”

“Nobody understands – even if you read it, nobody understands,” he continued. “It is not informed consent. And we’ve waited – I’ve waited for Facebook to step up to the plate and say, ‘We recognize the problem. Here’s the suggested solution.’ And all they’ve done is deny, stall, re-stall. Then they apologize and they said they would do better. But you have to judge them by their deeds, not their words.”